The Art of Broom Making

Benjamin Franklin is credited with introducing broomcorn to America in the 1700’s and to this day we have yet to find a natural fiber that works better for making brooms. During this two-day workshop, you will learn the skills necessary to create your own beautiful and functional sweeping tools including two styles of hand brooms: an Angel Wing whisk and a Turkey Wing whisk, and a full-sized kitchen broom with hardwood bark handle. On day one, students will learn how to select, sort, and prepare broom corn and get a working introduction to some of the unique but simple tools used in broom making such as the foot brake.  Before lunch, we will tie and plait (weave) our kitchen brooms. While those hang to dry we will move on to learning how to tie two different styles of hand whisks.  On day two we will sew our kitchen brooms flat using a broom vice, needle, and twine and students will learn how to add a decorative handle to their whisks. This is a beginner-level class. Some upper body and hand strength is required.

Skills and Techniques:

• Selecting, sorting, processing, and preparing broom corn.
• Using a foot brake to create tension.
• Weaving/plaiting with broomcorn stalks and basket reed to create decorative handles.
• Sewing a flat kitchen broom
• Trimming and shaping

Materials Fee: $20 Paid directly to the instructor.

Special Tools or Equipment:

All tools are provided.

Please be sure to read our 2025 policies before you register for a workshop which can be found here Workshop Policies